Greedfall II: The Dying World is the highly anticipated sequel to Greedfall, a unique fantasy RPG rich in its lore and setting. While I didn’t play the original Greedfall, I can tell that even in Early Access, Greedfall II: The Dying World has changed a lot from the original. Unfortunately, some of these changes aren’t for the better, and the game certainly needs some work before it leaves Early Access.
Greedfall II: The Dying World takes place before the events of the first game, which I was intrigued enough to read about after my time with the sequel. It cannot be denied that Greedfall II, much like its predecessor, tells an intriguing story within a highly interesting, vibrant fantasy world.
The big change between Greedfall and its sequel is that Greedfall II is told from the perspective of a native Indigenous to the series’ magic-filled island of Teer Fradee, who is taken to the mainland many characters are fleeing from—the source of the disease, prompting the colonization of the island in the first place. The flip of perspective is interesting and gives new insights into the world of Greedfall, precisely what you want from a sequel.
Much of the game is a narrative-driven RPG that requires you to speak to NPCs to gain and complete quests. It’s in these dialogue sequences that I think a lot of the Early Access lack of polish shows itself. The characters are stiff, and the graphics seem much worse when you watch these scenes, giving the game a dated feeling in the many dialogue interactions you see.
It isn’t enough to take you out of things, though, and really, what you are playing Greedfall II: The Dying World for is the story. Talking to characters pretty organically fills you in on the greater world around you, and the lore is interesting enough to grab your attention beyond the stiff animations.
That being said, I think the lighting system could use a bit of work to make the game feel more next-gen, although, again, I won’t complain if they feel like it’s in a good enough place as is. The UI is also a bit rough, but seeing as it’s in Early Access, I presume that is something that will change over time.
As far as the less troubling bugs go, there were occasional frame skips or textures loading in late. Generally, I felt like Greedfall II: The Dying World is already in a good spot regarding the game’s story and general questing. The worst bugs and my general dislikes came when engaging in the game’s combat system.
One seriously frustrating bug I faced involved my party’s AI in combat.
Greedfall II: The Dying World treats combat as something between a real-time strategy game and a turn-based RPG battle. While battles happen in real-time, your party is basically using a series of MMORPG-style abilities (including a WoW-style auto attack for when you don’t have action points for abilities), and you are allowed to pause at any time to queue these abilities up for your party.
If you don’t feel like commanding all of your party members to use their abilities manually, which would require a lot of switching back and forth between them, you can instead toggle the autonomous combat function. While you can still control your party manually with this function on, it essentially tells the AI of your teammates to play the game instead of just standing around waiting for you to give them commands more complex than “auto attack nearest enemy.”
I found myself tending to play more with autonomous combat on rather than off. The only issue is that this feature doesn’t work perfectly; more specifically, the party AI seems less than perfect in the Early Access version of Greedfall II: The Dying World.
The frustrating bug I mentioned earlier is that my party members, especially the ranged ones, often refuse to attack, use abilities, or even move with the autonomous combat AI turned on. Instead, the computer would often have them simply stand in place as enemies wailed at them. I wasn’t sure what caused this bug, but you can imagine how frustrating it could be to lose a team member when using a feature designed to minimize the need to micro-manage your entire party.
What’s worse is that when I inevitably had to swap to these party members to move them and get them fighting, the bug would then transfer to whatever character I was controlling before them. Essentially, this meant I had to deal with having one less party member and hope the bug wouldn’t show up in the next fight.
To be honest, I really disliked the combat. It reminded me a lot of playing World of Warcraft, a combat system that I thought felt dated ten years ago. A lot of the combat feels like I’m forced just to stand around and wait for my abilities to come off cooldown. While you can move around freely, doing so pauses your auto attack timer, and you can’t cast while moving, so essentially, doing so is a waste of time. It all comes back to standing there and using your abilities as they come up, with very little if any, interactive element to the combat.
This would be more acceptable for me if the game’s combat was fun to watch, but in Greedfall II: The Dying World’s current Early Access state, it has a lot of underwhelming effects, both of the sound and visual variety. I often wasn’t even sure my abilities hit my enemies because the effect was so short-lived and subtle.
My understanding is that the combat in the first game was more interactive and exciting, too, so this change seems surprising and, frankly, not for the better. I’m sure some people will enjoy it more than I did, but I can’t imagine big fans of the original loving this change.
Pros:
- Interesting characters, dialogue, and worldbuilding.
- Good storytelling, especially for a sequel.
- Great graphics and scenery, though the lighting can make things feel a bit dated at times.
Cons:
- It’s severely different combat from the original, which, in my opinion, is pretty boring.
- Serious bugs with the friendly AI that can further make combat frustrating.
- Messy UI that needs to be updated before the game is finished.
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